In an 82-62 win Friday night over Stetson in Atlantic Sun action at Allen Arena the Bisons played against a 3-2 zone for the entire game and also played a zone as well on defense.

“It was totally different,” Lipscomb coach Scott Sanderson said. “We worked against a zone the whole time which we haven’t done a whole lot of and we played more zone than we have all year long. Working on those two things will benefit us down the road.”

The Bisons led 33-26 at the half, but poured it on in the final 20 minutes. Their biggest lead was 25 points with 3:37 left to play.
It was the third straight win for the Bisons and their fourth in their last five games.

Eleven of 13 Bisons scored in the game with the reserves accounting for 24 points.

“That was a huge stat for us to get 24 points off the bench,” Sanderson said. “I got to play a lot of guys some minutes.

“Milos Kleut played 11 minutes. He needed that. Brandon Barnes played 15 minutes and did some good things for us. “

Center Adnan Hodzic led the way for Lipscomb with 20 points and nine rebounds, both game highs.

Also in double figures for the Bisons were guard Jordan Burgason with 15 and guard Josh Slater with 10.

Sanderson was concerned with how his players would shoot against the zone in terms of quality shots. They hit 51.7 percent from the field, 31-of-60 and 31.8 percent from the 3-point arc, seven-for-22.

“I thought we got good shots,” Sanderson said. “Jordan Burgason had 11 three-point shots. He hit four, but I thought he got pretty good shots.

“I don’t remember any shots that I wished we had back. There might have been a couple, but I usually remember those things.”

Forward Brandon Brown had eight points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes, one of the most efficient performances for the Bisons.

“Brandon was very good in the zone in the second half,” Sanderson said. “He was the top guy in the zone. He had to be like Superman. He had to cover a lot of area. He had to cover on the blocks and then he had to cover the top when the guard was shooting.”

The Bisons held a 37-32 advantage on the boards.

“We started out bad rebounding and we were tied 19-19 in rebounds at the half,” Sanderson said. “Rebounding is a big stat for us. Both teams turned the ball over 13 times.

“We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well and still won by 20. We got some quality looks. We just didn’t make them.”

The Bisons started out slow with both teams scoring 11 points in the first five minutes.

“I was not pleased with that,” Sanderson said.

The Bisons are 13-8, 8-4 in the A-Sun. Stetson is 6-16, 4-7 in the conference.

Both coaching staffs wore sneakers during the game to show their support for the American Cancer Society’s “Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers Awareness” weekend. The National Basketball Association is also part of the campaign.

Sunday afternoon at 2 the Bisons are back on the Allen Arena court to face Florida Gulf Coast, an 89-56 loser to Belmont Friday night. Florida Gulf Coast is 5-14, 2-8 in the conference.